I am looking to find information on the hisotry of child counseling. When did therapists begin treating children in clinical settings? Are there any pioneers in the history of this field?

Thank you!

-- Melissa Grinley (grinley@seattleu.edu), May 09, 2004

Answers

Counseling and psychiatry are not usually considered to be the same field, so I'm not sure exactly what you're looking for. "Professional" psychological interest in children began in the last 19th century. J. M. Baldwin's books on child development, G. Stanley Hall's book on adolescence, Alfred Binet's work on the child intelligence test (along with its translation and modification for the American scene by Goddard and by Terman), and Lightner Witmer's famous article on "clinical psychology" are among the main early landmarks in the field.

And then of course there is the whole psychoanalytic movement and its various offshoots...

-- Christopher Green (christo@yorku.ca), May 09, 2004.

In the field of child psychiatry of course the traditional great pioneers are Anna Freud and Melanie Klein.

I suggest that you read the chapter on The Evolution of Child Psychotherapy by Gerald P. Koocher and Eugene D'Angelo in Donald K. Freedheim, Ed. (1992) History of Psychotherapy: A Century of Change (American Psychological Association). The bibliography there will steer you to further resources.

-- Hendrika Vande Kemp (hendrika@cox.net), May 10, 2004.